The wind picked way up as I approached the Baja coast and I had a bit of a rough time, but finally got anchored. This was the other sailboat sharing the anchorage and we later enjoyed some time and activity together.

Sailing across the Sea of Cortez in early summer, 2007. I've got my harness on and I'm listening to the cruising report (or perhaps a Mexican radio station) as I make my way across the Baja on my first cruising sailboat, the popular Catalina 25 swing keel. Good thing I happened on the swing keel because I grounded twice on my first sailing trip off the coast of Mexico and if it wasn't for the retractable swing keel, I'd have been done for.

These are the two older gentlemen I met before traversing Punta Baja. They gave me the magic beans, two five gallon containers of gasoline. That fuel took me across the Sea of Cortez and back. The guys caught a rather large fish shortly after this picture. They offered me their catch but I declined. It seems they parted company soon afterwards, but before that happened they managed to inspire me to follow my dreams. The one on the left told me straight out that he helped adventurers as a matter of principle. Two wise angels put in my path by the grace of g-d.

It was so calm, I just rowed the zodiac from the anchored sailboat to shore. It was paradise that evening. It was like there was this other magical world that exists there - and it exists even as I write this and even as you read this months or years later. All I have to do to get to this magical world is to get into a sailboat and venture across the sea or even just out of the marina and up or down the coast a few miles. The magical land awaits those who dare to discover and does not care who you are, how you get there, or the size of your boat.